A few days ago, there was this… and then this, and then this

A few days ago, my sister Shawn sent me this photo of my 17 year old niece Sophia and her cat Flynn.  She said Sophia had been busy in her puzzle workbook for over an hour, while Flynn sat beside her and watched the entire time.

I got such a kick out of this picture, and said I needed to come up with a reason to include it in my next blog.  Well, here we are a few days later and I haven’t come up with anything.  So I’m posting it anyway!

It seems I’ve been waiting for Sophia to have some sort of meltdown since she brought home her very first report card with all A’s and my sister whooped it up.

I’d think to myself sure Shawn, enjoy it while it lasts.  Because when Sophia becomes a teen who’s tired of cracking the books, and joins some chick gang where they wear white lipstick and hang out at the filling station or candy store, don’t say I didn’t warn you!  Thankfully, that never happened.  Soph is going to be a senior next fall, is still sweet & upbeat like she was in elementary school, and still cranking out those straight A’s.

Also a few days ago, I decided to make my very first withdrawal from my IRA.  It was only $3,000 but I wanted to see how simple the process was, now that I’m 60 and meet the age requirement for penalty free withdrawals.  They asked me three questions:  1) How much do you want  2) Would you like us to withhold 10 or 20% Federal tax for you 3) Where do you want your cash deposited.

I got my money the next day.  It still felt weird though, like I had no business touching those funds.  I’ve had this retirement account since my 20s.  

I told my friend Danielle about tapping some of that work-loot, and she said “Promise me you’ll do something fun with it!”   I thought “That’s not how it works Danielle, I plan to reduce the monthly sell from my personal portfolio by $250 to compensate for that 3K advance”  but I just laughed and told her okay, I will. 

Well, I have had this laptop since 2012.  I sure could use a new one. 

And finally, a few nights ago I was getting ready for bed around 1am, and thought I’d run my garbage down the hall to the trash room so I wouldn’t have to do it in the morning.  When I got down there and opened the door, I was surprised to see my friend & neighbor Opal inside (I haven’t seen her since before Thanksgiving).  I think we both jumped about a foot.

She said “You almost gave me a heart attack!”   I apologized and said I wasn’t expecting to see her at such a late hour either.  She said “All I’ve got on is this ratty robe and nightgown, I didn’t feel like changing so I just waited until everyone was asleep!” 

I told her it was perfectly acceptable to be caught wearing a ratty robe at this time of night and she said “Well it’s all I’ve been wearing for 3 days anyway!”

I asked her if she had a nice Christmas and she said yes, her and the kid (her 40 year old daughter who lives with her) went with Opal’s sister to Ohio, to spend a couple days with family there.  She asked me if I did anything for Christmas, I told her not really.  I got a couple slices of ham from the hot foods counter at Kuhn’s Market on Christmas Eve, made scalloped potatoes and raspberry lava cookies, watched a couple holiday movies.

Opal looked down and shook her head no a couple times, then chuckled a little.  She said “I don’t mean to laugh, but your life is so depressing!”  

What the—how do you respond to something like that?  I thought about wishing her a Happy New Year and asking her to pass my wishes along to Little Edie down the hall at Grey Gardens, but I just shrugged my shoulders and said oh well, and goodnight.